According to the “Employment Rate of University Graduates in February 2019 (Including Those Who Graduated in August 2018)” posted by the Ministry of Education, Ajou came in eighth among four-year research universities with 1,000 or more graduates in the Seoul-Gyeonggi region with a graduate employment rate of 70.4 percent.

The average employment rate of all graduates from the 227 four-year universities nationwide dropped by a full percentage point to 63.4 percent. Since peaking at 65 percent in 2015, the national average has struggled to break through that threshold, recording 64.9 percent in 2016, 64.6 percent in 2017, 62.8 percent in 2018, and 64.4 percent in 2019.

Among the 2,184 Ajou students who graduated in either August 2018 or February 2019, 70.4 percent have landed jobs. The School of Medicine had the highest employment rate at 100 percent, followed by the College of Pharmacy (89.7 percent). The other departments and colleges with higher-than-average graduate employment rates included the Department of Transportation System Engineering (86.7 percent), College of Nursing (82.6 percent), Department of Mathematics (80.8 percent), Department of Digital Media (79.8 percent), Department of History (77.8 percent), Department of Financial Engineering (77.4 percent), Department of Software (76.4 percent), Department of Industrial Engineering (76.3 percent), Department of Mechanical Engineering (75.2 percent), and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (74.4 percent).

Not only was Ajou ranked highly, in eighth place, among the four-year universities with 1,000 or more graduates in Seoul-Gyeonggi, but it also came in eighth among the 30 universities ranked highly on The JoongAng Daily’s University Rankings 2019. Sungkyunkwan University, Hanyang University, Sogang University, Korea University, Yonsei University, Chung-Ang University, and Seoul National University were also ranked highly, with average graduate employment rates ranging from 70.9 percent to 78.6 percent.

Ajou’s graduates also had an employment retention rate of 89.3 percent, which is calculated using workplace-based National Health Insurance data to see who among university graduates have maintained their workplace-based insurance policies for one year since landing their first job. High employment retention rates are often interpreted as indicating the decency and security of jobs that university graduates have found.

Ajou came in eighth again among the 30 highest-rated universities on The JoongAng Daily’s University Rankings 2019 with a graduate employment retention rate of 89.3 percent. The other universities with higher rates were Sogang University, Sungkyunkwan University, the University of Seoul, Korea University, Hanyang University, Yonsei University, and Seoul National University, whose rates ranged from 90.4 percent to 93.3 percent.

Ajou provides career path counseling and employment support programs for not only enrolled students and graduates but also local youth through its Career Development Center. The center helps younger enrolled students explore their career paths and enables older enrolled students to develop occupational competency and other skills they need to find jobs. It provides one-on-one counseling with expert advisors, short-term occupational training programs (offering courses on Excel, video production, coding, big data, etc.), mentoring from graduates, career camps for transfer students, and job lectures (semiconductors, secondary cells, etc.), in addition to various special lectures and AI-based interview preparation programs.

The latest graduate employment rates were calculated as of the end of 2019 with respect to university students who graduated in either August 2018 or February 2019.

Go to Ajou’s Career Development Center website.